|
The French baritone, Jean-Louis Serre, began his career at an early age with the demands of an all-boy choir at the music school he attended. He went on to study at Tübingen and Heidelberg Universities in Germany but was soon drawn back to his original love for music and entered the CNSMP (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris) studying with Jane Berbié, Rémy Corazza and Marie-Claire Cottin, shortly thereafter joining the professional circuit as a baritone singer.
Of all musical styles opera is the place Jean-Louis Serre can give fully demonstrate his singing and acting talents. He makes regular appearances at concert halls such as Châtelet, Les Champs Elysées, l'Opera Comique but also Nancy, Toulouse, Tours, Avignon, Rennes, Angers, St Etienne and the Grand Théâtre de Genève. where his stage presence and unique vocal timbre are always praiseworthy. His approach to Oratorio repertoire is both enthusiastic and intensely personal; the early experience in a boys' choir has given him great insight into this work to which he has dedicated so much attention.
Jean-Louis Serre is engaged by amateur and well-known professional orchestras and choirs alike, including the Orchestre national de Lyon, Orchestre national de Lille, the Choeur de Radio France, Concerts Colonne, Lamoureux, Picardie; among the pieces he has performed are: A German Requiem by Johannes Brahms, The Requiems of Maurice Duruflé and Gabriel Fauré, Cantatas, Passions and Masses by J.S. Bach, Rossini, Felix Mendelssohn... In performance he has worked Marc Minkowski, Christophe Rousset, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Hervé Niquet, Philippe Herreweghe...
During the 2002-2003 season Jean-Louis Serre sang Medée by Michèle Reverdy at the Lyon Opera House, and The Seven Deadly Sins and Lost in the Stars by Kurt Weill together with Jean-Claude Casadesus and Eric Fischer. His 2003-2004 season was opened with Othello in Orange followed by Carmen at the Massy Opera House. In the interim he could be heard in Purcell's Fairy Queen with the William Byrd European Ensemble at the Festival van Vlaanderen-Brugge, as well as in two programmes of music by Monteverdi and Scarlatti. He also performed Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, Hadyn's Nelson Mass with Michel Piquemal.
This year (2005-2006), Jean-Louis Serre has starred as Escamillo in Georges Bizet's Carmen, and as the Count in W.A. Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro . He has formely appeared in Verdi's Don Carlo at the Orange Festival, Puccini's Mme Butterfly at Avignon; also at Avigon in the musical comedy Titanic by Yeston, and at Nantes in Viva la Mamma by Donizetti. He made his stage début in Geneva's Grand Théâtre as Aenas in Dido and Aenas by Purcell, conducted by Hervé Niquet.The production later toured to Caen. He has also taken part in a Moscow production based on the La Fontaine Tales by Lecoq, Offenbach and d'Ormesson. Aside from these engagements he has frequently performed sacred music. Of many concerts scheduled for this year those in France will include W.A. Mozart's Requiem, Puccini's Missa di Gloria, Rossini's Stabat Mater and J.S. Bach's Magnificat (BWV 243). To top it all he has been invited to lead a master class at the "Boîte vocal de Tours". He will be recording the famous duets by Veronique de Messager with the Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux under the direction of Yutaka Sado with Agnès Jaoui.
Among his recordings are: Les Amours de Ragonde with the Musiciens du Louvre which won the Diapason d'Or award, Cantiones by Kurt Huber with the Young Soloists; Gabriel Fauré's Requiem with the Petits Chanteurs de Versailles, the Motets by Franck which received the Choc de la Musique award, M. Duruflé's Requiem and The Missa con Jubilo with the Jean Sourisse Vocal Ensemble which also received ther Choc de la Musique award and Berlioz' L'Enfance du Christ conducted by Jean-Claude Casadesus. |
